Without any doubt JEAN MICHEL JARRE not only has paved ways for the era of electronic music, he has revolutionized this genre. And he still does, for over 40 years now. He has released umpteen records, broke records too and has influenced legions of musicians and bands, even deep in the metal scene.
Where music is not that sensational anymore JEAN MICHEL JARRE’s breathtaking live concepts and light shows and projects definitely still are! Yes, once in a life time one should have experienced a JEAN MICHEL JARRE live show!

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It’s great when dreams come true and for this many, many thanks go to Handwerker Promotion. I really appreciate that a magazine like Nocturnal Hall gets considered for such an event, although we don’t range any bit in these musical fields. We just scratched the genre with Klaus Schulze once... ;)

Arrival was an easy task, no traffics, an empty parking house with a clever and cheap payment. Cologne’s Lanxess Arena is made for 18,000 people, not even the half attended I’d say. The parquet was completely provided with seats killing my hopes to get into a photopit and being as close as possible to the spectacle. At the end we got placed at the right corner of the huge stage and I quickly reached the limits of my equipment. There was one photographer with a 500 or 600 mm lens; I guess he was the only one with acceptable results.

Never mind! The clock strikes 8, lights out, spot on! Bathed in a single white spot :: JEAN MICHEL JARRE :: marches in from the backside towards the stage, shaking hands while the audience jumps up for frenetic applause. Solemnly the grand master of electronic sounds enters the stage and graciously bows. He got into his set the classic way with old and famous tunes, just to go through all decades spanning periods of his work, step by step during a 2 hrs ride of extraordinary sounds from outer space. Some of his compositions got accompanied by videos on a very huge screen behind or by his breathtaking laser show respectively. In retrospect I have to confess that I found the laser show not that gigantic as expected. Of course JEAN MICHEL JARRE’s play on the laser harp at the Rendez-Vous is something unique.

Much more I got blown by his set up machinery. Left me almost beyond words. It looked almost like a fortress of synthesizers, moogs, keys, Theremin, and analog machinery… whatever. Every now and then we got a closer view when JEAN MICHEL JARRE had his head cam on, while his hands and fingers speeded over keys, buttons and knobs of all kind.

Likewise breathtaking was the fact that JEAN MICHEL JARRE was jumping and running all the time during his show. Without a break (and an oxygen treatment behind the stage – as some might know from some other artists). I mean, this man turned 63! My deepest respect to this performance effort. I know many musicians that act like very old men on stage yet being decades younger than JARRE. They could learn from him a lot.

Anyway, in the middle of his set JEAN MICHEL JARRE started talking about his engagement together with UNICEF and UNESCO to better education in the world giving better chances to kids in the so called Third World or developing countries. He dedicated the song Statistics, which revealed a lot of frightening statistics in his video.

Yes, my first encounter with JEAN MICHEL JARRE live on stage was a great experience. As it comes by nature I loved the old material more than the newer stuff. But hey, I’m very happy of having been a part of this all ;)

Setlist: Intro, Oxygene 2, Equinoxe 7, Equinoxe 5, Rendez-Vous 3, Magnetic Fields 2, Souvenir De Chine, Oxygene 5, Variation 3, Theremin, Equinoxe 4, Statistics, Chronology 1, Révolution Industrielle Part 3, Rendez-Vous 2, Rendez-Vous 4, Chronology 2, Oxygene 4, Oxygene 12 // Téo & Téa, Vintage, Fin De Siecle

story & pics © Dajana